‘No clear means to do that operation’

“I will not go into what strategies we’ll use [ground incursion or air strikes], however, in fact, we’ll attempt as a lot as we will to let individuals [Palestinian civilians] go away,” he stated.

Requested the place they may go, given ongoing warfare within the ruined north and Gaza’s sealed borders, Regev stated: “There’s nonetheless sufficient place to maneuver to some areas [in south Gaza] that we’ll declare”.

The Hamas group, which guidelines Gaza, attacked Israel on 7 October, murdering round 1,200 Israelis and taking roughly 240 individuals hostage.

Israel has killed round 15,000 individuals in Gaza, together with 6,000 kids and 4,000 ladies, and compelled 1.8 million Palestinians to flee their houses over the previous seven weeks, in response to the UN.

Israel’s acknowledged goal is to destroy Hamas’ predominant management and navy capabilities in Gaza and to free Israeli hostages.

And that is why Israel has rejected UN and Arab requires a sturdy ceasefire, Regev stated, as a six-day pause in hostilities ended at 6AM on Friday morning.

“We have to full this. There’s not a ‘day after’ [the war] for Gaza so long as Hamas is there,” he stated.

“That is the which means of stopping the battle as we speak — Hamas is there and we is not going to permit this to occur,” he added.

A minority of EU nations, together with Belgium, Eire, and Spain, have voiced critical considerations at Israel’s conduct of the battle.

However Regev stated high EU officers, and “[European Commission president Ursula] von der Leyen particularly”, in addition to main EU capitals backed what Israel was doing.

“There’s erosion [in EU sympathy], however should you take a look at the primary nations, you see there’s an understanding on the EU degree, together with leaders — we nonetheless see the assist,” he stated.

The EU is drawing up proposals for who ought to govern Gaza after Israel stops preventing and pulls out its forces.

And Regev stated the EU might need a job in what he known as a post-war “interim interval” of “demilitarisation and reconstruction”.

“The EU is turning into extra related to the following stage. I do know it. We’re discussing it”, he stated.

One choice was to contain an advert hoc coalition of prepared regional and different international nations.

However Regev dominated out the Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs elements of the West financial institution, calling it “unready” for the duty.

He additionally stated the UN was unfit as a result of its Unifil peacekeeping drive cannot even handle to police the Israeli-Lebanon border.

Regev spoke to EUobserver the identical day Hamas claimed duty for killing 4 Israelis in Jerusalem.

Israel has killed over 200 individuals within the West Financial institution and East Jerusalem since 7 October.

However the Israeli ambassador stated that whereas Hamas had cells within the West Financial institution, “there isn’t a battle there”.

He voiced “concern” Gaza bloodshed might radicalise Palestinians and Muslims additional afield, however stated an EU crackdown on funds for Hamas and associated teams would assist curb recruitment.

One purpose for the “erosion” in European sympathy had been the ever-louder calls that Israel was violating worldwide regulation by disproportionate use of drive in Gaza, compelled displacement, and collective punishment.

However Regev stated: “Gaza is one large navy base — they [Hamas] use each single place to cover rockets, explosives, so what would you like us to go [sic], surgical procedure? To danger our troopers?”.

“There is no such thing as a clear means to do that operation, like there was no clear technique to beat the Nazis or Isis”, he stated, referring to an Islamist extremist group previously primarily based in Syria.

Two Israeli ministers (Gila Gamliel and Avi Dichter) have known as to expell all Palestinians from Gaza.

One minister (Amichai Eliyahu) stated Gaza needs to be nuked, whereas Israeli president Isaac Herzog has stated: “It’s a whole nation on the market that’s accountable”.

However when requested if Israelis “hated” Palestinian individuals due to what Hamas did, Regev stated: “No. No. No.”

He admitted there have been emotions of “concern”, “rage”, and “betrayal” in Israeli society, in addition to “zero belief” for Palestinian individuals.

The veteran 56-year-old diplomat was himself “shocked” after watching graphic photographs of Hamas’ atrocities, Regev stated. “What struck me most was their pleasure amid the brutality”, he stated.

He added: “I really feel sorry for them [Palestinian civilians in Gaza]. I really feel sorry for them, undoubtedly — sorry for individuals who should flee their houses”.

Root causes

But when Regev nonetheless had associates in excessive locations in Brussels, then Israel’s grant of €40m for West-Financial institution settlers in the course of final week’s ceasefire drew rebukes from the EU.

“This isn’t self-defence,” stated a “shocked” EU foreign-relations chief Josep Borrell on the time. Violent settlers had been “pouring gasoline on the hearth”, US national-security adviser Jake Sullivan additionally stated on 29 October.

The EU has been warning for years that the 700,000 “unlawful” Israeli settlers within the West Financial institution, in addition to the every day cruelties of Israel’s occupation, had been “root causes” of instability.

However Regev dismissed that, saying: “I’m not ashamed of it [the new settler grant]. No. This isn’t a part of the battle. That is undoubtedly not a part of the battle”.

He additionally justified the West Financial institution killings since 7 October, including: “Did you see the record of people that had been killed there? They’re terrorists. They’re Hamas activists attempting to affix the get together”.

This was not completely true, in response to the UN, which says 54 of the Palestinians killed had been kids and that eight individuals had been murdered by settlers.

However for Regev, the one reason behind the 7 October pogrom was antisemitic indoctrination of Palestinians and different Arabs by Hamas and by the Muslim Brotherhood.

The brotherhood is a global Islamist group backed politically by Qatar and Turkey, however known as terrorists by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.

“They’ve an issue that Jews reside in Palestine. The tip of the street goes again to this ideological motion … it is not solely a terrorist group — that is the issue, it is an thought,” Regev stated.

“For them, we [Jewish people] will not be human,” he stated.

Peace horizon

Trying on the long-term horizon, the UN, EU, and US endorse a negotiated two-state answer, with Jerusalem as a shared capital, as the one technique to lasting peace.

However talks between Israel and the PA stopped 10 years in the past, shaping the established order ante of seven October.

And Regev warned there might by no means be new talks, as long as Hamas posed a hazard of extra massacres.

“The one hope for an actual peace course of is that if we full the job, as a result of so long as there’s Hamas it is not going to occur. No Israeli will talk about any form of political answer to the West Financial institution earlier than we all know there is not any extra risk,” he stated.

“One good factor that would possibly come from this [7 October] was that they broke the established order. Hamas did that,” he added.

“They [Hamas] did it for the dangerous, but when we reach our mission, possibly the individuals of Gaza can as soon as and for all have an opportunity for a standard life, as a result of there might be no terrorist group controlling them,” he stated.